Social Experiment Success: 'Surf' Downloaded 618,000 Times in First Week

It appears Chance the Rapper's Social Experiment is paying off, as evidenced by the high number of downloads of the newly released free album, Surf.

The Chicago MC tweeted Friday that according to iTunes the LP, which arrived last Thursday credited to Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal) & The Social Experiment (Chance himself is unbilled), had been downloaded in full 618,000 times.

Additionally, the set prompted more than 10 million individual track downloads from Surf, likely assisted by the high number of guest features from the likes of Erykah Badu, J. Cole, Janelle Monáe, Big Sean, Raury and Jeremih.

While some might argue the pros and cons of giving such a widely hyped album away for free, the pros surely outweigh the cons: potentially hundreds of thousands of future paying consumers for forthcoming material and live shows.